


Steve Versus the Winter Olympics

by Neverever



Series: Steve Rogers, 21st Century Sports Fan [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 2014 Winter Olympics, Gen, Ice Skating, Television Watching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-09
Updated: 2014-02-09
Packaged: 2018-01-11 18:37:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1176502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neverever/pseuds/Neverever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve gets fascinated by the Winter Olympics and Natasha reveals some surprising information.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Steve Versus the Winter Olympics

This year, Natasha had noticed the Winter Olympics only because they were being held in Russia. So she wasn’t entirely surprised to see Clint parked on a couch in the Avengers’ common living room when she passed through the living room. Tony set up international feeds for the Winter Olympics so Clint could watch the Olympics in real time if he wanted to. She was intrigued enough to watch the opening ceremonies with Clint. She grabbed a book to read during the slow times and joined Clint on the couch.

Steve emerged from a lengthy gym workout and was on his way to the showers when he stopped, clearly fascinated by the pageantry on the screen. Natasha had started reading when the parade of the athletes into the arena started. She looked up to see the United States team marching in. Steve shook his head and said, “After seeing that, no one can say anything about my uniform.”

Natasha noted the American flag decorations all over the American Olympic athletes’ uniforms. Steve had a point. Clint said, “Wait until you see the curling teams.”

“So what’s on after this?” Steve asked with interest.

“Slopestyle. You know, a snowboarding competition,” Clint said.

“Oh,” Steve replied. “I really like snowboarding. I’ll be back.”

When he came back to the living room, he brought snacks in generous amounts. Then Clint was muttering something about the upcoming biathlon competitions. Natasha was finding it harder to continue her reading and decided to investigate Steve’s snack selection.

Clint shifted on the couch and asked, “So when did you discover snowboarding?”

“A month ago, during a mission in the Alps,” Steve said. “I stayed behind and spent a couple of days learning about it.”

Having been with him in the Alps and seen him in action, Natasha knew that Steve was already an Olympic-quality snowboarder after two days on the slopes. Sometimes Steve’s ability to quickly learn and his athleticism were very scary talents.

“So what do you think about the Winter Olympics? Bet this whole thing is new to you, old man,” Clint said.

“Holding the Olympics was hard considering we hadn’t invented the wheel back then.”

Clint threw a pillow at Steve. “Seriously.”

“Clint, the first Winter Olympics were held in 1924. I saw them on the newsreels and followed them in the paper.” Steve paused to fill his plate with cheese and crackers. “But this is great – watching the games live in on the television. Wait, can you replay that?”

They watched the snowboarders for a few minutes. “What the heck is Team Figure Skating?” Steve asked when an announcement about the event flashed on the screen.

“You and many, many other people are asking that same question today,” Clint said. “Hey, when are the hockey games? JARVIS, find when the next hockey game is.”

“Go back. Let’s find out about team figure skating,” Natasha interrupted.

Steve smiled at her. “Hey, let’s watch that since we have no idea what that is,” he prodded Clint.

 

After seeing the opening ceremonies, Steve was addicted to watching the Olympics. He could be usually found in front of the television watching nearly every event. Or watching while using the special treadmill Tony had rigged for Steve, who could easily run half-marathons and wore out regular treadmills. Natasha caught Steve checking out news while handling a very routine fight with a would-be supervillain.

Clint and Steve were catching up on a variety of events they had missed due to Avengers business – speed skating, hockey, luge, bobsled, and ski events. Steve seemed particularly interested in the skeleton.

Sprawled out over a couch, Clint said, “I’m getting disturbed by how much you like the X Games type sports or events involving people and tiny, shield-like sleds.”

Natasha nudged Clint to move over. “You’re talking to the guy who jumps out of airplanes without a parachute.” She curled up the couch cushions.

“What are the X Games?” Steve asked with great interest. 

Clint groaned. Natasha laughed, “We’ll find a SHIELD cadet or two to explain them to you. But Olympics first.”

As Clint searched the list of recorded shows, Natasha pondered about asking to watch the figure skating. Clint and Steve wouldn’t give her a hard time about figure skating. But on the other hand, she had a reputation to defend and the first thing people thought about the Black Widow was not that she liked figure skating. Or was really ever the type to like figure skating.

Uninterested in the commentary and athlete stories on the television, Natasha asked Steve, “Remember the 1936 Olympics?”

Steve frowned. “Yeah. Actually those are the Olympics I remember best. There were calls for boycotting the games and no one did. People were planning another Olympic event, but then the Spanish Civil War broke out and put an end to that.” He smiled ruefully. “Looking back on it, you couldn’t really separate the Olympics from Hitler and the Nazis. Or from war. I didn’t like the Nazis in ’36.”

Natasha could imagine an angry Steve in the movie theater. Then Steve smiled. “Watching Jesse Owens win his gold medals in the theater – that was special. He was a great athlete.” He paused. “A couple of my friends from Pratt and I saw Leni Riefenstahl’s _Olympia_ when it came it out in ’38. Amazing, amazing film, inspired a friend to go into filmmaking. What I ended up despising intensely about that film was that it combined things I love -- art and sports -- into supporting something I hated -- Hitler and everything he stood for.” 

Clint opened his mouth and attempted to say something sarcastic to break the suddenly somber mood. “Um, well, I’m not sure that’s what NBC was looking for with their inspirational stories, you know, Nazis, propaganda and war.” He stretched out and asked, “So Nat, even been to Sochi? Given the whole Russian thing.”

Natasha was grateful for the change in subject. “A long time ago. My trip wasn’t memorable.”

They turned back to the sports on the television and after some discussion agreed to watch the curling. Steve said, “You weren’t kidding about the curling uniforms,” as the Norwegian team appeared on the screen.

Clint replied, “It’s the Norwegians. They like to dress that way.”

 

Coming back late from a SHIELD briefing one evening, Natasha saw Steve watching television. He was in a nest of mission reports, books, and a sketchbook and pencils on the couch with a large array of snacks on the table in front of the couch. He was watching a curling match while analyzing training data on a tablet. She always marveled at his multi-tasking abilities.

Natasha set down her tote bag and coat and sat down in one of the chairs. “Want something to eat?” Steve asked.

“No, I’m fine. I should probably go to bed.” She glanced over at Steve. “Um, would you mind watching figure skating?” Natasha asked. 

“Okay,” Steve agreed. “JARVIS, pull up the recorded figure skating programs.” He turned to her, “I thought you might want to watch from the beginning.”

Natasha could only nod. “JARVIS, show women’s figure skating. Short program.”

They watched for awhile in companionable silence. During a break, she said, “You really like the Olympics since you’ve watched nearly everything.”

Steve blushed a little and admitted, “I’d like to try every sport I see. It all looks like a lot of fun.”

“Would you want to be in the Olympics? But I suspect there is no-Avengers-on-a-sports-team rule,” she observed. She considered that Steve did not fit neatly into any category of super-powered human, meta-human or mutant. The description “peak of human perfection” was infuriatingly vague when it came to assessing what Steve’s abilities were.

“I wanted to play sports when I was growing up. I had bad asthma when I was a boy and was sick a lot. When I could go out and play, I had more enthusiasm than ability with sports. How about you?”

“I wanted to be a ballet dancer, but some of my friends were chosen to learn how to figure skate. The training starts very early if you or your coaches want you to be good.” She reflected on the vague memories of her childhood. “We didn’t seem to have a choice – or rather, we loved doing what we were doing, and the adults in our lives offered us a chance to do more of what we loved. We had no idea what we were getting into or that we would want other things. By the time we knew, it was too late and our paths were set. Resistance or wanting to quit only led to pain, disappointment and tears.”

Steve nodded. Then Natasha said, “But wanting to please the adults in our lives didn’t mean that we didn’t love skating or dancing or want to perform or do well for ourselves. As for me, when I was six, I was asked by people I loved to help them. Of course, I had no idea where that would lead. And it was not the path to being a lead dancer at the Bolshoi.” 

“I know a little bit about that -- getting into something that will get you what you want but not knowing the consequences,” Steve offered. He turned back to the skating on television. “Do you still know any of the skaters?”

“Not any more – my old friends are now coaches or trainers, one is even a choreographer. If you’d asked me a few years ago .... sometimes I see them on the sidelines or in the crowd.” Always haunted by ghosts and the way things could have been, she reflected.

“Can you tell me what to look for? What the jumps are? Good form versus bad form?”

“Sure. If you don’t tell anyone that I like figure skating.”

Steve replied, “I like figure skating too. Seems to be a very difficult sport.”

Natasha said enthusiastically, “You have no idea. Let me explain how hard some of the jumps are.” Then she laughed, pleased to finally be able to admit how much she really liked the sport.


End file.
